Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley, author of 'Faith and Politics After Christendom (Paternoster Press), is a keynote speaker at an undergraduate day at Oasis College of Higher Education in London on Wednesday 28 January 2015.

When UK chancellor George Osborne and other ministers pledged to slash benefits further, and remove basic rights, while protecting the assets of millionaires, some words of the prophet Zechariah two-and-a-half millennia ago seemed appropriate, says Savi Hensman. She challenges people of faith to develop a more critical perspective on leadership, both political and religious.

There was a fascinating response from former Labour minister Stephen Timms MP at the weekend to a speech made by Baroness Warsi last week. Speaking to Anglican bishops in Oxford, she criticised Labour in Government for undermining “the positive power of faith” and suggested the Coalition government would "do God".

Neither fundamentalism nor functionalism offer a way forward for the churches today in terms of their public witness and political engagement, says Simon Barrow. The different stances taken by church bodies in the 2010 general election suggest important lessons for the future.

It concerns a piece that the Lib Dem leader has written for the Church of England Newspaper. The Telegraph suggests "Nick Clegg appears to have undergone a rapid conversion" on the basis that, despite not believing in God "he claims that Christian values are 'central' to his policies".

On 24 March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated by the government of El Salvador, Savi Hensman reminds us. But his legacy of prayerful Christian engagement with the cause of justice and peace in the world cannot be killed off.